It is known from a published international PCT patent application PCTNO08/000046 (WO 2008/100148) (Epsis AS) that problems arise with human information overload when handling multiple parallel processes involving numerous sources of information in combination with multiple recipients of information; this international PCT patent application is hereby incorporated by reference as support for the present invention. Such information overload is for example experienced in a control centre for a complex oil production facility, wherein numerous complex concurrent processes are executed in the production facility. It is essential that the processes can be controlled from within a software environment where inputs and data relevant to the concurrent processes can be quickly accessed and viewed, for example for executing decisions. For example, when an accident or similar detrimental event occurs within the production facility, for example a blow out or a fire, it is essential that remedial action can be executed rapidly, the remedial action being implemented by invoking a process within the software environment which allows access to parties and data relevant to the invoked process. The processes are defined beforehand (a priori) together with their associated inputs and relevant sources of data, for example databases, operating schedules and so forth. The inputs are, for example, a telephone or video connection to staff distributed within the facility, to technical experts remote from the facility. However, the control centre is to be regarded as a substantial investment with its numerous screens and associated computing hardware. Software products for implementing such a control centre are provided by Epsis AS by way of its ERA Connect family of products.
A problem encountered is that there arise many alternative situations in the World where a control centre as described in the aforementioned international PCT patent application would be extremely beneficial to employ. However, these alternative situations may not necessarily be associated with production and cannot consequently bear high investment costs as often experienced within petrochemical industries. For example, such alternative situations concern: hospitals in poorer parts of the World, police organisations, smaller courier firms, customs organisations, complex renewable energy facilities such as wind farms comprising many wind turbines, and flexible public transport networks. Often these alternative situations introduce requirements for enhanced flexibility which are not readily accommodated in the aforementioned software products for implementing the aforesaid control centre. In other words, although the aforementioned control centre is an enormously valuable tool for controlling multiple concurrent processes, its cost of implementation is insufficiently low to enable it to be employed in numerous other diverse applications.
Moreover, many situations potentially arise were an ad-hoc meeting is required, for example a discussion meeting organized at short notice, where participants to the meeting need to present documents and also point out details in documents, for example details in diagrams and captions. Whereas such interactive activities are easy to implement when people are spatially gathered together in a real meeting room, such sharing of information is more difficult when participants to the meeting are at mutually remote localities and coupled by electronic communication media.